Sanofi Announces Executive Leadership Reshuffle

Sanofi has restructured its Executive Committee as part of a leadership transition designed to support the pharmaceutical company's next stage of growth. The changes bring together senior figures from across its commercial units, research divisions and global functions into a single leadership group.

Belén Garijo, Chief Executive Officer at Sanofi, says the updated leadership team is intended to guide the company through its coming phase of development, with patients and innovation remaining central to its strategy.

"This Executive Committee brings together experienced professionals who will work together to help shape our future direction, make disciplined choices, execute them with focus and ensure we continue to deliver for our patients, our people and all our stakeholders," she says.

From 1 September 2026, Sanofi's Executive Committee will include the following members:

• Paulo Fontoura, Executive Vice President, Head of Research & Development (Formerly Chief Medical Officer at Xaira Therapeutics)
• Thomas Grenier, Executive Vice President, General Medicines (Formerly Head of North America, Vaccines)
• François Roger, Executive Vice President, Finance (Formerly Chief Financial Officer)
• Jamie Haney, Executive Vice President, General Counsel (Formerly Senior Vice President - General Counsel North America & Global Specialty Care)
• Véronique Jaillet, Executive Vice President, Interim Chief People Officer (Formerly Head of Global Human Resources Manufacturing & Supply)
• Manuela Buxo, Executive Vice President, Specialty Care 
• Thomas Triomphe, Executive Vice President, Vaccines
• Brendan O’Callaghan, Executive Vice President, Manufacturing & Supply

Paulo joins Sanofi as a new hire, arriving on 1 September 2026 from Xaira Therapeutics, an AI-focused biotechnology company where he held the role of Chief Medical Officer.

Writing about his appointment on LinkedIn, Paulo says, "I am incredibly excited to be joining Belén Garijo and everyone at team Sanofi in this new role, to work together to create an amazing pipeline of new medicines that will make a real difference in the lives of patients."

He adds, "I am convinced that we stand at the threshold of a revolution in biopharma R&D, where we can combine our deepening understanding of disease biology with new computational tools in AI/ML to derive new insights that will solve the most complex biology problems and create cures for many more diseases around the world."

Executives take on new roles

Beyond the reshaped committee, Sanofi has confirmed that several existing leaders are moving into new positions as part of the wider reshuffle. Thomas will retain his role as Executive Vice President of Vaccines while also taking on responsibility for China.

Olivier Charmeil will step down from his position as Executive Vice President of General Medicines to become Strategic Projects Advisor to Belén.

Madeleine Roach has been appointed President and Country Lead for Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Her existing Business Operations responsibilities will move into the Finance division under François.

The Finance function will also take on responsibility for Global Partnering and Business Development, placing business development and mergers and acquisitions activity under one leadership structure. According to Sanofi, this consolidation is intended to create a more integrated approach to identifying and executing strategic growth opportunities.

Momentum from earlier in 2026

The leadership changes arrive after a period of regulatory and pipeline progress for Sanofi across the first half of 2026.

In June, the European Commission approved Sanofi's Cenrifki medication as the first disability-targeting treatment for secondary progressive multiple sclerosis without relapses. In the same period, the company secured US approval for Tzield as the first disease-modifying therapy for recently diagnosed stage 3 type 1 diabetes.

Sanofi has also reported progress in its rare disease portfolio during 2026. The company received US approval for an on-body injector version of its multiple myeloma therapy, Sarclisa Escena, and reported positive Phase III results for Nexviazyme in infantile-onset Pompe disease.